When you find out
You’ve probably had times when you found out something that really brought you alive. Perhaps being asked out on a date you’d hoped for. Maybe a job offer comes through. A couple finds out the wife is expecting their first child—or that you’re expecting your first grandchild! Surprises can be such bright spots in the course of ordinary life.
And yet, there can be other kinds of surprises that tend to darken instead of brighten. Like my friend who found out from his doctor that he had a terminal disease. He was advised to put his affairs in order since he had only a few months left to live.
The little surprises that most of us have are not life-changing, as this one was to my friend. You’ve probably seen a movie or read a book where someone finds out what my friend learned. It can make a dramatic difference in one’s priorities. Suddenly things that may have loomed important—getting a new car, an argument with a relative—no longer count for much.
But in the case of my friend, there’s something else he found out. And it had an even more dramatic impact in changing his priorities. He remembered walking by a Christian Science Reading Room and his attention had been drawn to a Bible verse displayed in the window. It was the Psalmist’s affirmation that God “healeth all thy diseases” (Psalms 103:3). The short story is this led to his finding out that he could be healed through the kind of prayer Christ Jesus taught. And he was healed. That was several decades ago, and his vigorous, active life attests to the significance of how Christian Science explains Jesus’ method of healing. In fact, I can think of several examples where individuals have been told by doctors that their life was coming to an end and then they found out through Christian Science that actually their life was just beginning.
When we truly find out that Life really is eternal and that we've never been born into matter, nor will we pass out of matter, well, a whole lot will change in how we are living our lives.
Things you find out can make simple tweaks in your weekend. Or literally, they can change the course of your life. What if you discovered something today that turned everything in your life upside down? Unlike what the doctors told my friend, what if instead you found out today that you were never going to die? I don’t mean in the old theological sense of eventually having life after death. Nor do I mean discovering that a body of matter will go on forever. What I do mean is what if you found out today that your life actually has always been spiritual and will be forever uninterrupted? What would you do differently? How would priorities shift and change in your life?
Mary Baker Eddy confronts readers of her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures with this jarring (to the material senses) challenge: “Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof” (p. 246, emphasis added). Those of us who study this book regularly could easily think, “Oh yes, I’ve been aware of that point for a long time.” But if we’re honest, we’d probably have to confess that while we’ve read that statement many times, we have a distance to go in order to truly find this out. Reading the words is one thing. Finding out or actually making the discovery is much more. When we truly find out that Life really is eternal and that we’ve never been born into matter, nor will we pass out of matter, well, a whole lot will change in how we are living our lives. It won’t be (material) business as usual.
So how do we “find this out”? For me, one of the most powerful steps in understanding the significance of this discovery has been to study the life of Christ Jesus. Everything in his life fits so logically when thought of in the context of finding out that Life is eternal and beginning to demonstrate it. His virgin birth and healing works, including raising the dead, naturally set aside so-called material laws about life. His crucifixion and resurrection pointed inevitably to the fact that life can be demonstrated when death claims to be so aggressively final.
But more than anything else in all of human history, Jesus’ ascension changed everything. It provided the ultimate and indisputable proof that we can “find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof.”
Again and again Christ Jesus set an example for us. He clearly called on us to follow this example. He insisted we would do the works that he did. He really left no excuse for present-day disciples to ignore his guidance. He commanded, “Follow me.” He promised a Comforter that would “guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). This would include the truth of Life eternal and our ability to demonstrate it.
As the disciples began to realize that Jesus truly had been resurrected from the grave, they were filled with joy. Jesus moved through closed doors and stood in the midst of his disciples calling on them to be at peace. “And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord” (John 20:20). We might describe what they were beginning to find out as a taste of Easter gladness.
And when Jesus was lifted out of mortality, when he ascended and proved with finality and for the entire world that Life truly is eternal, the people were stirred with profound feelings. Within weeks they came together in a Pentecostal experience that changed the lives of thousands.
During that time of Pentecost, Peter had called for repentance, for a whole new way of thinking. This would mean dramatic, new priorities. “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. . . . And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:41, 46, 47).
All these people were finding out that life really is eternal. Nothing was any longer going to be the same. Their lives changed drastically. Their gladness was far more than just human happiness. It was spiritual discovery, a measure of genuine revelation.
We, too, will have an entirely different way of thinking about reality and how our lives relate to it, as we move beyond reading just the words and truly “find this out,” that Life is eternal. Our priorities will change. We will, with genuine Easter gladness, begin the demonstration of real Life.
